Petrocultures is a sub-discipline in the humanities which contends with the ways fossil fuels shape interpersonal, social and cultural lives. Despite the field’s rapid expansion, there has been little concentrated work to date on the relationship between energy culture and popular music. What Stephanie LeMenager calls the ‘aesthetics of petroleum’ holds a particularly strong resonance with music cultures. Understanding the ways oil culture has structured ways of life requires attention to the music that exemplifies, glamorises and critiques petromodernity. Think, for example, of the prominence of automobility in songs like Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Thunder Road’, ACDC’s ‘Highway to Hell’, Tracy Chapman’s melancholic ‘Fast Car’, or Charli XCX’s ‘Speed-Drive’, the petro-feminist soundtrack to the Hollywood motion picture, Barbie. These tracks reveal the petro-capitalist ideologies embedded in cultural notions of freedom and liberty, and the allure of a fast-paced consumerism, behind which lies widespread ecological and social devastation. At the same time, musical cultures have a strong relationship with protest movements. There is also a range of music protesting oil extraction and its colonial legacies such as by hip hop group The Deep, while the pioneer of Afrobeat music, Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti lamented the corruption associated with oil politics in Nigeria in ‘International Thief Thief’. Popular music from across the world simultaneously bolsters and critiques the oil capitalism it is grounded within. These connections run deep. The very notion of popular music – music as a mass-produced consumer product – is enabled by oil in the production of vinyl records, and later compact discs. Even streaming platforms have a significant energy footprint. The links between oil and music also precede the emergence of popular music in the twentieth century. The sea shanty ‘The Wellerman’, for example – a viral phenomenon in the covid lockdowns – shows oil and music intersecting in the nineteenth century.

This volume aims to explore the history of oil through the discussion of popular music; to put it another way, it will tell the story of popular song through its intricate involvements with global petroculture. We are interested in music of any genre, period or national origin and in any connection to oil. Our aim is to produce a book that explores the diverse links between oil and music. While Crude Tunes will engage with academic debates in the energy humanities and cognate fields, it will also be directed towards a readership beyond the academy. Contributions should be written in lively and engaging prose that is accessible to non-specialists and a wide audience.

Crude Tunes will consist of essays in two formats:

1. Focused discussions of individual songs that explore their relation to particular historical moments or themes in global petroculture. While we hope to include contributions on many well-known songs which may be considered particularly influential in petromusic, we are also open to readings of less well-known songs that elucidate the connections between oil and music in significant ways (2000 words).
2. Longer discussion of larger topics in petromusic. These might take the form of discussions of the connection between a particular musical genre and oil, or analysis of some aspect of the material culture of popular song, or comparative discussion of the expression of a key theme in petroculture in different music genres or artists (5000 words).

Please send 200-word proposals, along with a short biography, to John Miller (john.miller@shef.ac.uk) and Josie Taylor (josie.taylor@ucd.ie) by February 1st, 2026. You are welcome to contact the editors for a preliminary discussion about your ideas before submitting an abstract.